“I shouldn’t have had to figure it out and go research it from somebody who posted it on a Facebook group,” said Stacy Jo Grant, mother of a third-year graphic design student at Parsons School of Design, when talking about The New School’s restructuring plan. Grant, a mother from New York City, had no idea about the gutting plan before The New School Free Press reached out to parents.

Grant isn’t alone. Many TNS parents said they are upset over a lack of communication regarding the university’s drastic restructuring efforts. 

Most of the parents interviewed in this article pay for their children’s tuition and are worried about what the restructuring means for their children’s classes, professors, and degrees. 

The university’s ongoing restructuring efforts are meant to stabilize the university’s estimated $48 million deficit by merging Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts with The New School for Social Research (NSSR) and Parsons with the College of Performing Arts (CoPA). 

The university is also cutting classes and majors/minors with low enrollment, and carrying out employee-related measures like separation packages and a hiring freeze. 

While parents seem to understand current restructuring and some even deem it necessary to get the university back on financial footing — without clear communication, they worry about what these changes really mean for their children’s educational future at TNS. 

Robin Mercer, the mother of a third-year literary studies major at Lang, said she has had difficulties with TNS’s communications since the day her daughter moved in as a freshman. Her daughter has “thrived” since then, however Robin has always felt frustrated with the university’s lack of transparency and communication. 

“I feel there’s very little communication about anything from The New School to parents in general, let alone this thing which seems like it’s very important and large,” Mercer said, referring to the restructuring. “I really am clueless.” 

Mercer, who works in non-profit development, said she understands the importance of raising money and communicating to an institution’s supporters. To Mercer, keeping the community involved and feeling valued is important. 

In her view, the university should look at the parents as “ambassadors of The New School” and communicate with TNS families in order for them to go out into their communities and talk to other parents whose kids might be interested in the university. 

“The quality of the teachers … the quality of the classes, and the class sizes,” are all things Mercer said she values about TNS. 

Mercer also appreciates students’ exposure to a larger network, and said her daughter “was introduced to a lot of professionals in the publishing world.” However, as a parent, Mercer has noticed a “lack of communication and maybe some disorganization,” and therefore is unsure what to tell other prospective families. 

Laura Loebl also believes that reaching out to prospective students could alleviate the university’s financial struggles. Loebl is the mother of a second-year BAFA student who is undeclared but considering majoring in fine arts at Parsons and history at Lang. 

Loebl is especially concerned considering her student is thinking about majoring in History, which is said to be indefinitely discontinued in the short-term. Loebl worries that if her child’s history classes get impacted by the cuts, “they’re going to have to be enrolled for additional time.”

History is just one of the various programs set to be indefinitely discontinued. As part of the restructuring, over 20 academic programs will be cut or paused in the next academic year. A majority of the discontinued programs are at NSSR and Lang. 

Working in the education sector, Loebl understands that the school is working in a difficult time and cuts need to be made. Still, Loebl said, “The school itself should’ve been better prepared for these valleys.”

According to Loebl, she doesn’t “see the New School out [in mainstream media] as much for positive things,” especially in comparison to other universities. While she believes the school has a strong reputation of being a leading liberal and fine arts school, with a lack of positive media coverage the school doesn’t attract as much attention as it could. 

“The education that we feel our child is receiving is second to none, but there’s not a lot of talk about that,” Loebl said. 

More positive media coverage could bring more full paying students and therefore ease the financial burden, Loebl suggested. Better long-term communication and a clearer rationale behind the university’s decisions would also help families understand the consequences of the changes. 

Members of the TNS community made a similar point to Loebl. A lack of transparency in the restructuring process has been heavily criticized by students and staff.

In December, outside a Board of Trustees meeting, hundreds of students, professors, and faculty members protested the administration’s decisions. 

“It would’ve been nice a year and a half ago for them to have said, ‘Well, we may be going through a transition’,” Loebl said. Loebl felt that the university  made the restructuring seem as if it was a “quick decision,” she said.

Heidi Huelster was also jarred by the news. As someone who works in secondary education, she said, “I understand philanthropy. I understand advancement … I just feel like, ‘how did we get to this point?’” 

Huelster’s daughter, a third-year literary studies and creative writing major at Lang, has loved her experience at TNS, but has decided to transfer for her last year of undergrad. “She made a decision to not end her college experience [at Lang] because it was just becoming kind of stressful, and it was also becoming so unsure,” Huelster said. 

The voluntary separation offers are one of Huelster’s biggest concerns. Huelster sees the investment of money, time, and energy being met with the question of how well is the education and who are the professors. With the current situation, Huelster and her daughter decided that she could continue to “get a really great education for half the price of The New School” elsewhere, with none of the restructuring.

“Whatever happens with this school, in my opinion, as a parent, there’s going to have to be a lot of … trust that they are going to have to put back into [TNS’s] community,” Huelster said.